Some of the nation's largest providers of electricity meters say the House's $819 billion economic stimulus bill could put them out of business and wreak havoc in the new market for "smart-grid" technology by favoring certain computer network standards.

M2Z is a small wireless start-up with a big goal: free broadband for the masses. The free service, if it launches, would run at 768 kilobits a second, 10 times faster than dial-up. Big wireless carriers currently charge a lot more $60 to $80 a month for a lot less, 400 to 500 kilobits or so. Premium services at higher speeds 3 to 6 megabits initially, Medin guesses would start at just $20 a month.